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A most shocking event has taken place in the Indian state of Bihar involving the state run midday school meal programme resulting in the death of 23 children who had consumed insecticide laced rice and curry (http://news.in.msn.com/national/government-to-probe-mid-day-meal-scheme-after-23-children-die), The Midday Meal Scheme is the world’s largest school feeding programme involving 120 million children in India. The programme is run on a public-private partnership with NGOs and local contractors and the scheme involves giving hot nutritious freshly cooked food to children. It is envisaged as a means of reducing malnutrition and increasing school retention of children coming from poor households, particularly in rural areas.

In the present case the food had been cooked on the school premises and preliminary investigations suggest unintentional poisoning. The oil in which the food was cooked had been put in an empty pesticide container and the two substances had got mixed. This oil had then been used for cooking the meal. The food was prepared in the house of one of the teachers whose husband was grocer. So conspiracy theories are also rife.

From a care perspective, this case raises several issue to my mind.Firstly, how can such carelessness take place and what does it tell us about the attitude of those managing the programme? What does this tell us about the contemporary state as it moves from a paradigm of social welfare to neo-liberalism wherein it sub-contracts core care functions to private stakeholders? What is the value being placed on the lives of young children in such a context? How is that the rage which such an event should have generated has turned more into a storm in a teacup? What does this event tell us about the interface between care politics and corruption?